Tag: flipper

There are many ways to clean your aquarium glass. You can use an algae pad, an algae pad with a handle, a scraper with a handle, a razor blade, your hand, or a magnet cleaner. The least expensive is of course your hand but if you are reading this post then you probably want something else.

The next least expensive is an algae pad, they usually come in a small square in blue white or green and cost a few bucks. That sounds great right? It is, until you get that first patch of stubborn algae and you are vigorously using lots of muscle to get this tiny piece of algae that won’t come off, all while losing water out of your aquarium due to the wave you are making. You also have your hand in the tank, with your killer betta.

Once you catch your breath and get a glass of water from your arm workout, you look on your phone, or trek to your local fish store and seek a better option. There are a plethora of options from an algae scrapper on a handle to the razor blade on a handle. You really don’t want to get a workout from your aquarium again and really don’t like sticking your hand in to the aquarium, (you swear your betta is out to get you).

You have decided on the $10.00 generic scrapper with handle and a razor blade attachment. You’ll show that algae who is boss when you get home, without Mr. Betta plotting his attack. When you are at the checkout counter there is an aquarium with a peculiar gadget attached to the side. It has a sign that reads “ask me how to get a spotless aquarium with little effort”. You ask the clerk for a demo on this gadget. She tells you it’s a flipper magnet aquarium cleaner. Really?? They make those? How cool is that?

The clerk starts to dance with this magnet cleaner with ease, using one finger she glides it all over the tank. Then, in one flowing dance move the magnet flips over. She explains that there are two sides to this magnet cleaner. One gets everyday algae that builds up, the other (she flips it again as she explains) gets all the hard to get stuff. You are just amazed with this awesome product, and the ease of use it has. It solves all your aquarium cleaning problems in one awesome flip! You throw money on the counter and tell her you have to have one. You go home and laugh at your algae and your betta as you dance and flip your way to the most pristine aquarium glass ever.

Its such a chore to clean the aquarium glass. Why not make it fun and easy?

There are a good amount of magnet glass cleaners out there and they all work. They range in prices and sizes but this is the best I’ve seen with dual use. The magnets are very strong and durable and the blades are replaceable. Another nice feature is the slim profile. This is perfect for getting the front glass without disturbing live plants, live rock, or corals. The flipping part takes some finesse. I tried it for the first time today and had some success. After about ten tries I was flipping with my 17 month old daughter on my hip.

One nice thing is that the package comes with a blade for glass and a blade for acrylic aquariums. The Glass blade is very sturdy and it does work very well. We were doing a complete change on our rimless 57 gallon show tank and I used the flipper aquarium magnet to get rid of the hair algae and some coraline algae (pink calcium). It surprised me how well it took the algae off with not too much effort. We did have coraline that was on the aquarium with two or three layers on it and that did not come off easy at all. I would not recommend, using it for massive amounts of coraline for two reasons:

It would take a lot of elbow grease to get the caked on coraline from years and years of buildup. If you aren’t careful then the water in the tank could create a wave and overflow all over your beautiful floor, I would bet someone in your house would not find it impressive or funny, and you would have a floor to clean after your aquarium. And really, who has the time or wants more work, right?

If you do decide to mess up the floor with your feat of strength and defeat that massive amount of algae, then you will dull your blade. Now not only are you wasting time, cleaning the floors but you are wasting money with needing a new flipper magnet blade. I don’t know about you but I don’t have the time (between chasing after my toddler and running my own business) or money to waste all on a silly patch of algae in the back corner that no one will ever see.

What you will love about this flipper aquarium magnet is the ease of use for weekly and even monthly maintenance on the war against algae. It will make you want to use it because its fun and easy. I was pretty impressed by the scrubby side of the flipper magnet. There is really no downside to daily use. You can scrub anytime with no fear of scratching. Its so nice to have an all in one magnet that really works. It saves you time and effort by having both of the components on the magnet and the fact that you flip it is pure genius. I said earlier that it takes a bit of finesse to flip, but its not hard at all. I have fun and demo it to pretty much every customer I talk to. My daughter loves to watch it flip while sitting on my hip.

The flipper aquarium magnet comes in 3 sizes. One for nano tanks which I sell for my many customers with Bio cubes. One for medium tanks, which it the one I use for all my demos on my 57 rimless aquarium. The last one is a huge flipper for use on huge aquariums. Its good for my 150 gallon that houses our 3 captive bred yellow tangs (read about them here).

Here is a rundown on Flipping the flipper aquarium magnet cleaner.

Do’s:

Do have the flipper up near the top of the aquarium when you want to flip

Do pull the magnet away from the aquarium and flip it over

Do put the flipped over magnet right next to the magnet inside aquarium and watch in awe as the inside magnet gently and slowly flips over and reconnects to your magnet

Do practice a lot and impress your friends with a flipping show

Do have fun cleaning your aquarium

Do try flipping in the corner over to the other side, it’s the easiest way to flip, plus the fact that you can get it to the next side is pretty cool too

Don’ts:

Don’t try to flip near the sand because you can get the sand between the magnet and glass and scratch the glass